The present invention relates in general to a method and apparatus for facilitating the implementation of patient care plans in health care facilities. It more particularly relates to a method and apparatus which facilitates the implementation and management of health care plans for patients in a health care facility.
In modern health care facilities, the care of patients is managed in a cost effective manner. In order to facilitate the managed care, computer systems have been implemented, whereby care plans can be made readily available to the health care providers, such as physicians, nurses and others.
While such systems have proven to be highly successful, for many applications, the initial entry of information into the computer system for the care plan for a particular patient can be time consuming. Since time is of the essence in health care facilities, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved method and system for facilitating the implementation of patient health care plans.
Therefore, it is the principal object of the present invention to provide a new and improved method and system for facilitating the management of patient care plans.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a new and improved method and system, wherein health care providers can more expeditiously and efficiently manage the patient care plans.
A further object of the present invention is to provide such a new and improved method and system for facilitating the management of patient care plans in a more cost effective manner.
Briefly, the above and further objects of the present invention are realized by providing an improved method and system for facilitating the management of patient care plans in a more systematic manner and enabling the plans to be modified with patient experience.
A method and system of facilitating the management of patient care includes storing clinical pathway templates of pre-defined patient care plans, and assigning a template to a given patient undergoing treatment. The assigned template is tailored for the requirements of the given patient, and variances from the patient care plan are collected so that the pre-defined patient care plan templates can be modified with patient treatment experience.